CHAMPCAR/CART: da Matta claims the spoils again in Montreal qualifying

It looked like a yet another day at the office for Cristiano da Matta. The
diminutive Brazilian claimed the pole position for the Molson Indy Montreal
by setting a fast time of 1:18.959 in the dying seconds of the session.
Cristiano da...

It looked like a yet another day at the office for Cristiano da Matta. The
diminutive Brazilian claimed the pole position for the Molson Indy Montreal
by setting a fast time of 1:18.959 in the dying seconds of the session.

Cristiano da Matta.

Photo by Eric Gilbert.

"It was a perfect run," da Matta said. "I had no traffic, and it was
clear from beginning to end. The tires were great and I had enough fuel."

The loser in da Matta's 11th-hour run was Dario Franchitti, who appeared
to have wrested the pole from Brun Junqueira in the final minutes of
qualifying. However, da Matta clearly bested Franchitti, whose fastest
lap was clocked at 1:19.334.

"We changed everything on the car from yesterday and I think it showed,"
Junqueira reflected after the session. "But Cristiano is still four-tenths
quicker than we are and that's too much."

Patrick Carpentier.

Photo by Eric Gilbert.

Behind da Matta, Junqueira and Franchitti was local favorite Patrick
Carpentier, who has won twice in the last four CART events to move into
second place in the CART FedEx Championship.

However, the points da Matta has scored for topping qulifying timesheets
yesterday and today have increased his lead over Carpentier from 42 to
44 points.

"Good, not great," Carpentier admitted. "We finally got into a rhythm
today and that makes a big difference."

The crowd, some 50,000 strong, certainly approved of Carpentier's
performance, giving the French-Canadian a standing ovation for his
fourth-place starting position.

The other Canadians, Alexandre Tagliani and Paul Tracy, qualified in
eighth and tenth places, respectively.

The organizers have chosen a somewhat smaller-capacity grandstand
configuration than that used for Formula One's traditional Canadian
Grand Prix in June of each year, and so far there has been no shortage
of fans to fill those seats.

"It's pretty impressive when you see all the fans, with the stands full
and the reaction to the Player's guys," reflected Franchitti. "They have
a passion here."

On the absolute speed, though, the heavier Champ Cars do suffer in
comparison to the nimbler, razor's edge F1 cars; da Matta's pole time
was 6.323 seconds slower than that set by Michael Schumacher in June.

"I said I thought we'd be within five to seven seconds of F1 and I was
right," said da Matta. "But I think that's pretty impressive considering
we only have one tire company and our budgets are about $200 million less."

Admittedly Ferrari may spend $200M more than Newman-Haas, but rookie
F1 driver Mark Webber, driving a Minardi (whose budgets are much closer
to those of Newman-Haas), drove around the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve
in 1:15.508, still nearly four seconds faster.

But variety is the spice of life, and it certainly appears that
Montreal is enjoying the distinction of being the only city in the
world to host borh Formula One and CART.

Now it is up to Franchitti, Junqueira and Carpentier to provide an
entertaining race for the fans tomorrow -- first and foremost, by making
sure that da Matta does not run away with the lead.